Regarding the attempt to overthrow the US government on 1/6

The Guardian reports that attempts by the ex-president and allied Republican elites knew they were breaking laws in their attempt to overthrow the US government on 1/6. The Guardian writes:

Interrupting the certification of Joe Biden’s election win on 6 January last year as part of the scheme to return Donald Trump to office was known to be unlawful by at least one of the former president’s lawyers, according to an email exchange about the potential conspiracy.

The former Trump lawyer John Eastman – who helped coordinate the scheme from the Trump “war room” at the Willard hotel in Washington – conceded in an email to counsel for then vice-president Mike Pence, Greg Jacob, that the plan was a violation of the Electoral Count Act.

But Eastman then urged Pence to move ahead with the scheme anyway, pressuring the former vice-president’s counsel to consider supporting the effort on the basis that it was only a “minor violation” of the statute that governed the certification procedure.

The admission that the scheme was unlawful undercuts arguments by Eastman and the Willard war room team that they believed there was no wrongdoing in seeking to have Pence delay the certification past 6 January – one of the strategies they sought to return Trump to power.

It additionally raises the prospect that the other members of the Willard war room – including Trump’s former attorney Rudy Giuliani and Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon – were also aware that the scheme to delay or stop the certification was unlawful from the start.

The request to adjourn the joint session was one of several strategies Eastman had laid out in an infamous memo presented to Trump, Pence and top aides last year that outlined how the former vice-president could attempt to unilaterally overturn the 2020 election results.

The strategy to delay the joint session past 6 January was about buying time for Trump and his team to pressure state legislatures to send Trump slates of electors to Congress on the basis that the Biden slates were illegitimate because of supposed election fraud.

The email exchange – revealed in court filings by the select committee last week – shows Eastman attempted to take advantage of the fact that the Electoral Count Act was not followed exactly in the immediate aftermath of the Capitol attack to try and benefit Trump.

“The Senate and House have both violated the Electoral Count Act this evening – they debated the Arizona objections for more than two hours. Violation of 3 USC 17,” Eastman wrote to Jacob in his 9.44pm email, referring to the statute in the US criminal code.

But in the second part of his email, Eastman claimed that because the statute had already been violated in small ways – delays that amounted to a few hours at best – Pence should have no problem committing “one more minor violation and adjourn for 10 days”.

That admission is significant since it demonstrates Eastman knew the scheme to delay Biden’s certification was unlawful – which the select committee believes bolsters its case that he was involved in a conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruct Congress.

This disclosure of crime arguably puts Biden and Merrick Garland in an uncomfortable position. They do not want to prosecute the ex-president or the criminals who planned and tried to help him overthrow the government. 

The best strategy for Biden and Garland to shield the high level 1/6 traitors and criminals is to (i) say nothing about this, and (ii) repeatedly deflect attention to prosecutions of the low level degenerates, street thugs and traitors who physically attacked the capitol on 1/6. That should do the trick.

No doubt, Republicans in congress will somehow blame Biden and Democrats for 1/6. That should distract public attention and help the ex-president skirt the law to come out untouched and fighting for self-righteous revenge. Of course, defense attorneys for the ex-president and his criminal gang will use every possible trick, dodge, sleight of hand and technicality to subvert the law so that the courts find no wrongdoing. 

As we all know, when it comes to trying to overthrow the US government, small infractions of law are acceptable. But when it comes to prosecuting the traitors and thugs involved in an overthrow attempt, no miniscule infraction is tolerable. As usual, the game is rigged heavily in favor of the bad guys, neo-fascism and the rule of the thug and heavily against the good guys, democracy and the rule of law. Just politics as usual for American elites.

Biden's and Garland's legal defense strategy for the ex-president 

and his co-conspirators